Creepy (2016) – An Unsettling Thriller on the Modern Familial Disintegration

Japanese film-maker Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films are not for the
traditional viewers of crime thrillers or murder/mystery. He would tease us
with a familiar genre outline, yet gradually he would break out of the pulp
fiction shell to weave a complex and unbelievably dark narrative. Modern
societal alienation is the central theme of his works. He explored that in an
emotionally aching way in the ponderous dramas Bright Future(2003) and TokyoSonata (2008). However, Mr. Kurosawa is best known for exploring the same theme from
the horror perspective. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001) is
couple of the best unique modern horror films. In Cure, a detective hunts down
a powerful serial killer who dabbles with hypnotism. In Pulse, the director
brilliantly delivered the concept of haunted internet. Creepy (2016) -- based
on the mystery novel by Yutaka Maekawa -- may miss the complexity of Cure, but
it would certainly work fine as a companion piece. ‘How does evil creep through
the thin fault-lines of our societal disconnection?’ once again seems to be the
question driving Mr. Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Similar to Cure (1997) it is better not to consider Creepy
as a murder/mystery. It certainly has the framework of thriller genre, but
idiosyncratic thematic perspective takes over the procedural narrative in the
film’s second half. So Creepy is a part-thriller and part-social satire. The
transition, of course, isn’t very smooth and so many viewers would be appalled
by the lack of logic or presence of dream logic in the later sequences. Nevertheless,
if you watch it with an open-mind you will have a thoroughly creepy movie
experience. May be indicate the thematic similarity to Cure, this film also
opens in a well-lit room. It’s an interrogation room (in Cure it’s a hospital
room) and detective Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is discussing on ‘morality’
with a murderer who has killed eight people. Takakura takes a little break from
interrogating the smiling killer. Moments later, the killer slashes the throat
of two people with a fork and is gunned-down by police officer. Takakura is perturbed, resigns his detective job and chooses to be a professor of criminal
psychology. He and his wife Yasuko (Yuko Takeuchi) has moved onto a new house.

The couple faces little hurdles as they intend to start a
fresh life. The suburbs seem to be full of reclusive neighbors. Nishino
(Teruyuki Kagawa), the next-door neighbor looks like the epitome of this
reclusiveness. However, he sometimes sheds his aggressive attitude and becomes
sincerely effusive. He gets close with the couples’ big, shaggy-haired dog
Marcus. Nishino also introduces his teenage daughter Mio to Yasuko. He goes
back to his shell when Yasuko asks about his wife. At one point, Nishino
confesses that his wife has some psychological problems. They say ‘old habits
die hard’ and so Takakura finds the next-door neighbor strange and creepy.
Yasuko rejects that idea after awhile thinking Nishino just stays true to his
emotions (or just lacks few social skills). Takakura, apart from observing
Nishino continues his old habits with a former colleague Norigami (Masahiro
Higashide). Young detective Norigami has taken over the six year old
inexplicable disappearance case of three family members. Takakura who is bored
with his teaching job immediately agrees to help Norigami. The only clue to the
case is the family’s surviving daughter Honda. She was a secondary school girl
at that time and was on a school trip during the disappearance.

Professor Takakura gets lured into the disquieting missing persons case by a fellow colleague doing research on the homicide and unsolved cases

As usual Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s audio-visual choices are a
fascinating to watch. The director always chooses perfect locations and
atmosphere and then allows those things to push the narrative’s abstract and
naturalistic themes. He gives a lot of importance to staging and to develop an ambient style. Kurosawa showcases his wild sense of visual style in Takakura’s
marvelous interrogation scene with Honda. The lighting in that sequence adds a
lot to the character’s psychological dimension. The director’s taste for
constructing smart spatial style is evident in the sound-proofed bunker house
with a trap-door. The dirty, hidden room is a literal vision of inescapable evil
present alongside the radiant, calm suburban surroundings. Contrary to the
visual style of atmospheric horror, Kurosawa rarely employs close-ups. He uses
empty, derelict spaces to create the same unsettling effect of a close-up. The
superiority in the imagery is well-matched with some of the thematic choices.

Kurosawa’s interest with evil and villains is different from
the works of old masters like Fritz Lang. Instead of going for a smart villain
figure like Dr. Mabuse, Kurosawa designs obscure personalities who behave more
like an idiot than a bad guy. In Creepy, Nishino frightens us not because of
his master plans, but due to his emptiness or nothingness. I mean he lacks an
identity as opposed to hero Takakura, who fiercely clings on to the identity of
detective and loving husband. It’s a very Lynchian vision of evil; like how
these dirty insects populate the underside of a radiantly beautiful green lawn
(Blue Velvet). In the director’s disconnected modern universe, the villain
draws others into the similar state of non existence (in Cure – hypnotism; and
in Pulse -- the internet). From a conventional perspective, we get a desired
result in the end. On the other hand, if you observe it from the thematic
sense, the evil will end up fully exploiting the good people’s humanity,
pushing them into a blank state. Some say think that Creepy is very
predictable. Actually the director wants it to be like that. The narrative is
about how the characters perceive things, yet they are willingly or unwillingly
attracted to the inevitable. As a thriller it’s not a very exciting prospect,
but we could see this as a metaphor for the dreadful quality of quotidian life;
moving ourselves into trapped routine until the time for harsh confrontations.

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is well-versed in evoking atmospheric horror through subtle variations in shadow and light. The above picture depicts one of those moments in the narrative.

Creepy does lacks the narrative complexity of Kurosawa’s
better earlier works.Yasuko’s longing was particularly less explored. Her
earlier curiosity and later transformation must have made us feel for her, but
we just witness it all with impassivity. There is excessive lack of emotional
anchor in the second-half as things become ludicrous and increasingly
abstract. The very conventional, rigid narrative set-up in the first half also
doesn’t help to make the free leap into the irrational state. However,
Kurosawa’s mise-en-scene and Teruyuki Kagawa’s astounding
portrayal of the ‘blank’ demon makes Creepy a must watch. Kagawa’s
Nishino is clearly based on the less-known Japanese killer Futoshi Matsunaga,
whose serial killings are like the worst-case scenario of ‘Milgram experiment’. Kagawa’s
twisted lethargy is disquieting than the usual movie vision of evil.

Creepy (130 minutes) opens like just another serial
killer/thriller and ends up being an acute examination of the horrors
underlying the contemporary social environment. While the film is brilliant
from a visual stand-point, its thematic flourishes will definitely divide over
the viewers.